Toona calantas

Toona calantas is a species of tree in the mahogany family. It is found in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. It is threatened by habitat loss.^[1] It is commonly known as kalantas (also spelled calantas), lanipga (in Visayan and Bikol),^[2] ample (in Batanes),^[2] bantinan (in Cagayan and Mountain Province),^[2] danupra (in Zambales and Ilocos Norte),^[2] Philippine cedar, or Philippine mahogany (although the latter is also applied to members of the unrelated genus Shorea).^[3]

Toona calantas
Toona calantas leaf and bark
Conservation status
Data Deficient  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Sapindales
Family:	Meliaceae
Genus:	Toona
Species:	T. calantas
Binomial name
Toona calantas Merr. & Rolfe

Description and phenology

The kalantas tree can grow up to 25 metres (82 ft) and can measure up to 25 centimetres (9.8 in) in diameter.^[4] The color of the bark ranges from yellowish to dark brown and the inner bark is light brown^[2] while trunk is straight and terete.^[4] The leaves can be described as compound, alternate oblong or broadly lanceolate^{[clarification needed]}.^[4] The fruit of the kalantas tree is a capsule that can be ellipsoid or oblongoid that measures 3–4 centimetres (1.2–1.6 in) long.^[2]

Flowering occurs from June to August while fruiting occurs from September to November.^[5] In Mount Makiling, Laguna, Philippines, seed gathering takes place from February to March.^[5]

Distribution, importance and conservation status

Generally scattered all over the Philippines particularly in the Balabac group of islands, the kalantas tree can be found in the hills of a forest situated in low to medium altitudes.^[4] The wood of the tree is used for making boxes, furniture or plywood.^[4][5] Kalantas has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as Data Deficient^[2] but it was reported that kalantas is exhausted due to logging and kaingin (a Tagalog term for slash-and-burn).^[4] Reforestation efforts have been done in the Philippines and the kalantas tree is included in these efforts.^[6] One of the efforts were done by the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources during the term of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo where the president herself planted a seedling of a kalantas tree,^[7] which is the favored tree promoted by the president.^[8]